Arizona Mesa Mission Address

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

December 14, 2010

Hey Fam,

I don't know what time we are going to be able to call our parents on Christmas. We have two baptisms, a Wedding and are working Christmas Lights on the temple grounds on Christmas day so it could be pretty hectic.

Me and my companion, Elder Ralphs, continue to get a long really well. He is seriously such an awesome Elder that I have already learned so much from. I hope that we are companions for more than just this transfer.

This past week was pretty busy as usual and I got to work the Christmas Lights again. I had the opportunity to talk to this one lady with three kids and when I told her where I was from, she said, "Oh, is that near like where Glenn Beck lives?" When I told her he was in my ward back home she started freaking out and telling me how jealous she was. She even lost one of her kids while she was talking to me and it was like she didn't even care. She was telling me she watches him and O'Reilly every single night. I told her how I thought Glenn was a pretty good guy and that he had a super powerful testimony and conversion story. I have actually met a bunch of die-hard Beck fans in Arizona. You can actually tell him that he has contributed to the missionary work down here as well. There were these Elders in my district that went tracting, and one particular door they knocked on was opened by a man who was crying. They asked him what was wrong and if he needed any help. He said he was fine and that it was just something he was watching on TV. One of the Elders looked into the room and saw Brother Beck giving one of his rousing, emotional segments on his show. They told the man that one of the reasons Glenn Beck has such strong feelings for God and his country is because of the testimony he has of the message they were sharing -- that Jesus Christ lives and His Gospel has been restored again on this earth. They bore testimony that, like Glenn, they knew their message was true and he could know for himself through prayer. The man immediately let them in and at the end of the lesson agreed to set a date to be baptized. They told me that he had just been baptized a week ago!! Talk about being observant and teaching to someone's needs!! This is a great example of someone that the Lord prepared to receive the gospel through the actions of one of his children, in this case Brother Beck. The missionaries were guided to that door at just the right time when that man's heart was softened so he would invite the Lord's servants into his home. Make sure you tell Brother Beck about this sweet story on Sunday.

Speaking of miracles and how the Lord truly guides the missionaries, Elder Ralphs and I had a great experience with this guy that we contacted last week named Alberto. We contacted him as we were leaving a lesson. I was actually backing up the car and since we always need a missionary to stand behind the car and back us out, Elder Ralphs was doing that. I looked in one of my mirrors to see Elder Ralphs and he wasn't there, and I thought "where did he go?" I looked over to the sidewalk and saw him talking to this guy and thought to myself, "there goes obedient Elder Ralphs talking to everyone like we are supposed to..." (just jokingly, I always try to talk to everyone but I don't know if I would have in that situation since we were late for another appointment.) Anyway, we taught him a couple days ago and he told us that he had been taking the lessons where he used to live before he moved. He said he really liked having the lessons and it was disappointing that the missionaries hadn't been stopping by anymore. We continued to teach the first lesson which was super powerful and the Spirit was so strong. I taught him about Joseph Smith and the first vision and he started to cry a little bit when I gave Joseph's account. We set a baptismal date with him on the first of January. Anyway, that was one of the miracles that I saw this week which was really awesome. We also had a baptism on Saturday with this woman named Olivia who I had only taught once so I didn't know her that well.

Another pretty cool thing was that we had a ward Christmas party this past Saturday where the missionaries participated in a play about the life of Jesus Christ. We performed this song called "Sabias Que" ("Did You Know That") which was about these people singing to Mary and asking her if she knew that Jesus was going to do all these miracles during his life. We acted out each miracle as the song played. My role was John the Apostle. It was pretty fun. Over 200 people showed up for the party including a ton of our investigators, which shows how strong this area and our ward is.

Anyway, I gotta get going. It was super great to write you and share some experiences with you.
Love Elder Kinney

Elder Kinney,I just read the miracle of meeting Alberto to our boys. Thanks for being a missionary. You AND Brother Beck are being good examples. Keep furthering God's work in Phoenix.AND HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS!!Love, the Bulloch Family :)